Insects near
waste water could give a platypus or trout half a human dose of antidepressants
Tue 6 Nov
2018 17.00 GMT Last modified on Tue 6 Nov 2018 17.01 GMT
A platypus
living in a creek or stream with waste water could be exposed to 50% of a human
daily dose of antidepressants just by eating its normal diet of insects,
according to new research.
A team of
scientists, led by researchers at Monash University, has analysed insects and
riparian spiders found in six Melbourne streams for traces of 98 different
types of pharmaceuticals.
The research, published
in Nature Communications on Wednesday, detected 69 different types of
pharmaceuticals in insects and 66 types in spiders. It suggests the
pharmaceuticals were transferred to spiders after they consumed insects.
The
scientists then estimated what the potential exposure could be for the main
species that feed on invertebrates in those streams: platypus and brown trout.
“There’s
many studies that exist that tell us that pharmaceuticals are in the water,”
said the study’s lead author, Erinn Richmond. “What we didn’t know is are these
pharmaceuticals moving through aquatic food webs?
“One think I
think is alarming about this study is the sheer number and types of drugs
detected in these insects.
“We found 69
different pharmaceuticals.”
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